Parliament adjourned for the day over Pathak report leak

New Delhi, Aug 4 (UNI) The leak of the Justice Pathak Committee report on the oil-for-food scam to the media rocked both Houses of Parliament today with the Opposition forcing the adjournment of both chambers for the day, accusing the government of engineering the leak in ''contempt of Parliament''.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha witnessed uproarious scenes as soon as they assembled this morning with the Opposition asking the government how the report was leaked to the media while it was just submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day and Lok Sabha till 1500 hrs after Opposition members shouted slogans against the government for being behind the leak of the report that has given a clean chit to the ruling Congress party while indicting former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh.

When the lower house reassembled at 1500 hours, BJP's Vijay Kumar Malhotra sought to raise a point of order. However, Devendra Prasad Yadav, who was in the Chair, asked him to allow certain vital matters to be transacted. Though Prof Malhotra obeyed, he and members of the NDA soon returned to the well of the house and started shouting slogans. The treasury benches retorted in kind, creating a din, forcing the Chair to adjourn the house till 1530 hours. However, even then the Opposition trooped into the well of the house and both sides continued to engage in a slogan-shouting contest, forcing the Chair to adjourn the House for the day.

Earlier, when the Lok Sabha assembled in the morning, the leader of the Opposition L K Advani said it was ''intriguing that the report was submitted to the Prime Minister and leaked to the press at the same time,'' and termed it ''contempt of Parliament''.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee condemned the leak and said the report should have been placed in Parliament before it was published in the media. Mr Chatterjee asked the government to explain how the report was leaked to the media.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi categorically denied that the report was leaked by the government and said it would look into the episode.

The Opposition also received ready support from UPA allies including the Left, RJD and SP in the Lower House whose leaders flayed the disclosure of the Justice R S Pathak Committee report.

The probe panel investigated the role of the Congress, Mr Natwar Singh and his son, his friend Andaleeb Sehgal and Mr Singh's relative Aditya Khanna, as well as Reliance into Volcker expose whether they benefitted monetarily from the oil-for-food scam.

The Volcker report had rocked Parliament last year leading to resignation of Mr Singh as External Affairs Minister.

The Pathak Committee reportedly did not find any evidence to establish that Mr Singh and his son received money though the money trail that led to Sehgal and Khanna. It, however, indicted Mr Singh and his son for misusing their positions.

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